UK doctors transplant six-day-old baby’s organs in milestone procedure

British doctors have turned a tragedy into a medical milestone by transplanting the organs of a deceased newborn.

The six-day-old’s kidneys and liver cells were donated to two other patients after the baby’s heart stopped beating.

Doctors say she was born with severe brain damage having been starved of oxygen in the womb.

They praised the “extraordinary generosity” of the girl’s parents.

One of the doctors involved, Gaurav Atreja, told the BBC that the successful transplants had “turned out to be a positive thing for the family.”

The operation to remove a baby’s organs is extremely difficult – the kidneys, at that stage of life, are only five cm long.

Figures suggest that at least 15 infants in the UK are waiting for organs, and the size of the organ is critical; neonatal organs, howver, can be transplanted to adults as well as other babies and children.

Transplants of this kind have been successfully performed in other countries, including Australia, but restrictions in the UK regarding when a baby can be declared brain-dead have impeded life-saving operations.